Lessons in the "Movies" Category

Great Scott Marty! DeLoreans are coming back to the future to be rebuilt! The famous DeLorean sports car made famous by the movie franchise Back to the Future is set to go back into production more than 33 years since the last one was built.

The rights to the DeLorean name are now owned by the Texas-based DeLorean Motor Company (not related to the original). It sells refurbished DeLoreans. However, due to a change in US laws, the cars no longer satisfy modern safety regulations, so as long as no fewer than 325 are made each year, the company will now be able to build the Delorean as well. One executive described this as a ‘game changer!’

The latest James Bond movie to be shot has come up against a new enemy – cobblestones! The producers discovered this unforeseen problem of noisy cobblestones when filming the latest 007 movie Spectre in Rome recently.

The British spy, was involved in a high speed car chase involving his silver Aston Martin DB10 and a Jaguar C-X75. As they sped along the banks of the Tiber river, the sports cars had to drive across cobblestones. Producers noticed with dismay the loud sound created interfered with their audio inside Bond’s car. Post production film audio techniques will no doubt solve this matter.

Back to the Future: “Great Scott Marty, it’s 2015!” Movie fans will no doubt remember the cult comedy classic ‘Back to the Future II’ movie starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd. In it, Marty McFly and his famous sidekick ‘Doc’ Brown go forward in time to 2015!

In the real world we are now in 2015, so just how much did the movie-makers of 1989 get right in their futuristic vision of 2015? Well, there are flying cars in 2015, including the Slovak AeroMobil 3.0 – prototype and the US Terrafugia. These cars remain for the few and rich and are still extremely limited.

Hands up who hasn’t heard of Harry Potter! I can’t believe there is anyone who hasn’t heard of him. Just in case you haven’t - he is a fictional boy wizard created by British author J.K. Rowling. For those Harry Potter fans that have read the books and seen the movies I have some good news. Now you can visit the Harry Potter movie set where many of the scenes were shot. You can do this by visiting the Leavesden Studios near Watford, Hertfordshire, in the UK, where all eight films were made over the course of a decade.

The Harry Potter Studio Tour offers fans the opportunity to see behind-the-scenes look at how the films were made. Visitors will be able to see the sets, props and costumes that appeared in the movies. You can wander down the cobbles of Diagon Alley, inspect the table settings in the Great Hall at Hogwarts, gaze at the bookshelves in Dumbledore’s office and peer through the windows of number four Privot Drive. Other things to see include Hermione’s cloak, Harry’s broomstick and Hagrid’s motorcycle.

James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 from ‘Goldfinger’ and ‘Thunderball’ came top in a list of all time 50 favourite memories from the James Bond hit movies. Second was Oddjob’s metal-rimmed bowler hat that decapitated his enemies. A survey of 1000 moviegoers, conducted by insurance firm esure to mark 50 years of the film franchise, asked fans to name what to them encapsulates their favourite secret service agent.

Coming in at number three was Bond’s favourite drink – a Martini that he prefers ‘shaken, not stirred’. Surprisingly, Ursula Andress – dressed in a skimpy white bikini as Honey Ryder in the first James Bond movie ‘Dr No’ – comes in at a rather lowly 22, but she is still 23 places above hunky Daniel Craig emerging from the sea in his tight swimming trunks in the remake of ‘Casino Royale’.

Nikki Sellers from esure: “Bond is famous for the actors who play him, the villains and, of course, the girls.” She added, “We wanted to also celebrate the non-human stars of the films, such as the amazing cars, the wonderful inventions and the style icons.”

A new sci-fi film* about the Nazis has reignited a debate in Germany about Hitler’s development of flying saucers. The Finnish sci-fi comedy ‘Iron Sky*’ centres on real life officer Hans Kammler, who was said to have made a significant breakthrough in anti-gravity experiments towards the end of World War Two.

The film relates how, from a secret base built up in Antarctica, the first Nazi spaceships were launched in late 1945 to found the military base Schwartz Sonne – Black Sun – on the dark side of the moon. This base was to be used to build a powerful invasion fleet and return to the earth once the timing was right, in this case 2018.

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NewsFlash English was created and is run by a professional English teacher and aims to be the ultimate resource for ESL and TEFL teachers, offering lesson plans every five days, based on current news stories.

Each lesson plan comes complete with texts and dozens of exercises that you're free to mix and match to suit your group of English learners.